great gray fisher bird

[Arcy]

Hello!

I am new to this forum, I am a translator and am translating Watership Down where I encountered this apparently simple but tricky name of a bird. Please help with a suggestion when possible.

My context is:

Skirting a small lake, they had stared to see a great gray fisher bird that stabbed and paddled in the sedge, until a flight of wild duck had frightened them away with their clamor.

My question would be:

Is this just a fisher bird or is it a specific wild bird (of Britain), please?

Thank you for your suggestions.

[Deer Stalker]

Hi Arcy. Welcome to WAB

Never read the book but sounds like a Grey Heron.

[Tursiops2]

Hello Arcy, welcome from me too.
It's a long time since I read the book, but I agree with Deer Stalker - a classic description of a Grey Heron, can't be anything else.

Tursiops2

[Arcy]

Hello Tursiops2,

Thank you very much. It is that great coloured bird that appears in the movie, too, I hope it is the same, it looks the same as the Grey Heron!

Best regards.

[Arcy]

Hello Deer Stalker,

Thank you very much. Since everyone agrees this must be it!
I shall now check the images and then the word in my native language.

Best regards.

[goosey]

Hi Arcy, welcome to WAB, and I hope to see you around the forums. Good luck with your translation - what are you translating it into?

[buzfuz8149]

Hi Arcy,

A warm welcome to WAB, the variety of questions and people on this forum is amazing, looking forward to more of your posts.

Carol.

[ellida-of-laira]

It's years since I read the book, hope it translates well!

Graham H

[rlchew]

Hi Arcy

Welcome to WAB .... and you have another vote for Grey Heron.

Best of luck with the translation. That sounds like it will keep you busy for a while!

Richard

[Arcy]

Hello Goosey,
(How do I address an Officer of the Wild Empire, please?!)

I am translating it into Romanian and hope it will be a smash hit as it was in England years ago ... I am also preparing a wonderful illustrated glossary to go with it... It explains the Lapine language and all terms that seemed interesting and special...

Best regards from Bucharest!

Nina.

[Arcy]

Hello Carol!

Thank you very much for the greetings and hope to post many more questions and even answers (who knows?!) in the future.

Good to know I have so many Internet friends...

Best regards,

Nina.

[Arcy]

Dear Graham H.,

Thanks for the well wishing. It translates well in the sense that I am in love with the book. It translates rather slow because I have to look up all these wild life terms. Sometimes going even into medical biology, vet terms (and situations, too). It is complicated also because the English is so good and therefore I want to convey a good Romanian too.

See you on the forum sometime,

Best regards,

Nina

[Arcy]

Hello Richard,

Thank you for the message and for the greetings!
Yes, I will have a working summer coming... but I like it so I will face it, no matter what!
I also would like to thank you for the vote for the term, too.

Best regards,

Nina.

[Arcy]

A Message to all:

I would like to thank you very much indeed and may ask many questions in the future so please bear with me!

I also would like to say that there are not so many friendly and right-to-the-point forums like you have here. This is great and I want to thank you again!

Best regards to all from a scorched Romania...

[Tursiops2]

Originally Posted by Arcy

A Message to all:

I would like to thank you very much indeed and may ask many questions in the future so please bear with me!

I also would like to say that there are not so many friendly and right-to-the-point forums like you have here. This is great and I want to thank you again!

Best regards to all from a scorched Romania...

Hi Arcy, you're welcome
This is exactly the right place to ask questions about British wildlife - keep 'em coming . It's nice to see WAB reaches an international audience.

Best regards from sodden Suffolk
T2

PS you'll find photos of Grey Heron in the WAB gallery here:
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/ga...mages.php?c=52

[wildone]

Hi Arcy

Your readers should have no trouble with the translation if you also give a glossary with the Scientific names which are international, such as Grey Heron - Ardea cinerea

Welcome to WAB and we'll do our best to answer any wildlife queries you may have.

wildone

[eeyore]

it is definitely a grey heron ... but remember that in the book richard adams is creating the Rabbits own language ( hence a hrududu is a car for example) therefore the Rabbits would not have reffered to the bird as a grey heron but as a great grey fisher bird - so if you want to remain true to the spirit of the book then it might be better to translate these words into their romanian equivalents rather than using the species names.

also a lot of the animals encountered are given their own names in the Rabbits language - lapine- the Fox for example is a homba which is a made up word and thus probably can be left as is in the translation

by the way i have just found this website http://www.langmaker.com/featured/lapine.htm which gives a list of the "lapine" words and their english equivalents which you may find useful

[Arcy]

Hello eeyore,

Thank you. Yes, I translated the text exactly as it is and did not put the bird's name, but I added the explanationa in the glossary at the end of my translation... And sure, I will keep hrududu, homba and so many phrases of the Lapine language: this is the flavour of the text!

I would like to thank you kindly for the link you provided. I also found The Lapine-English in Wikipedia, but this seems more interesting, I think.

Please rest assured I like the book so much I would not spoil any nuance, let alone meanings, flavours and so on.

Best regards,

Nina.

[Arcy]

Dear wildone,

Thank you for the advice. This is exactly what I am doing: I have four columns: English/Lapine, Romanian, Images, Notes and/or weblinks.

I will see if the editor accepts it, including the images...

Best regards and thanks again,

Nina